1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a removable vehicle wheel ring and vehicle wheel sized and shaped to simulate the look of a bead-lock vehicle wheel.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, light truck and SUV sales have grown to be about half of all new vehicle sales in the United States. The growth in popularity of these types of vehicles has spurned a similar growth in off-road racing. Off road racers, unlike their street counterparts, improve traction by decreasing tire air pressure significantly below manufacturer pressure limits. Not only does the reduced air pressure tire have a wider footprint, but it more readily bends around road obstacles such as rocks. The off road tires are usually tubeless. At this reduced tire pressure, the tire rim bead may become separated from the wheel resulting in a rapid loss of air pressure.
A solution to the separation problem is to modify the wheel rim by adding an inner and outer bead lock. The bead lock device is used with pneumatic vehicle tires to hold the tire beads against the circumferential flanges of the wheel rim at low tire pressures. The inner bead lock is a metal ring attached to the inner surface of the outer rim of the wheel. It has many internally threaded holes arrayed at equal spaces around its circumference. The outer bead lock is a metal ring with a matching number of holes arrayed to align with the inner bead lock""s internally threaded holes. The tire bead is sandwiched between the inner bead lock and the bolted on outer bead lock. The bolts holding the sandwiching rings together must be torque checked frequently. This adds a great deal of maintenance time. When running at reduced tire pressures, the tire bead is clamped in place between the inner and outer bead locks resulting in no tire air pressure losses.
Bead lock wheels can be manufactured by modifying an existing wheel. This process makes these types of wheels very expensive. Since this type of wheel is not street legal, a vehicle owner must also have a set of street legal wheels available and the where-with-all to replace all four wheels. This replacement process is also very expensive. Many vehicle owners who do not race off road would like to have the appearance of an off road wheel in an affordable street legal wheel.
A one-piece wheel with a raised outer rim ring with imitation bolt heads has been manufactured to imitate the bead lock wheel appearance. The one-piece construction makes the wheel look like an obvious and cheap imitation.
The bead lock wheel structure has a distinctive appearance quickly associated with off road racing. An objective of this invention is to achieve the same bead lock appearance on an unmodified, mass-produced, street legal wheel. Another objective is to produce this wheel for a fraction of the cost of an actual bead lock wheel. Yet another objective is to produce a matching or contrasting color simulated outer bead lock. Still another objective is to produce a simulated outer bead lock ring having a light reflective surface so that the ring will become much more distinguishable when a light source strikes it. Another objective is to produce a vehicle wheel ring with far greater ease of interchangeability than a conventional bead lock vehicle wheel ring or a one-piece imitation bead lock wheel. The final objective is to produce a low cost interchangeable simulated outer bead lock ring that a vehicle owner could have in several colors or styles and could mix, match or replace at will. The present invention satisfies these needs, as well as others, and generally overcomes the deficiencies found in the background art.
The invention is a removable vehicle wheel ring. A wheel rim is provided. The wheel rim has an outer rim edge, an inner rim edge and a central connecting portion attached to the outer rim edge and to the inner rim edge. The central connecting portion has an outer surface and an inner surface.
A central disk is provided. The central disk has an outer circumferential edge and hub mounting holes. The central disk is attached onto the vehicle hub by passing an equal number of hub studs through the mounting holes and tightening retaining nuts down the hub studs to impinge against the central disk.
A tire is mounted onto the wheel rim in a conventional manner for a tubeless tire.
The outer rim edge has an inner and an outer surface. The outer surface of the outer rim edge has a plurality of holes arrayed annularly at equal spaces around the outer rim edge. The holes have internal threading.
A ring is provided. The ring has an inner edge, an outer edge, an inner surface, an outer surface, a predetermined thickness and a predetermined width. The ring has a plurality of holes arrayed annularly around the ring in alignment with the plurality of internally threaded holes arrayed annularly at equal spaces around the outer rim edge.
The ring is attached to the outer rim edge by installing bolts through the plurality of holes arrayed annularly around the ring and into the internal threading of the corresponding plurality of holes arrayed annularly at equal spaces around the outer rim edge. There is no need for the frequent bolt torque checks required on a conventional bead lock wheel.
A variation on the removable vehicle wheel ring invention has the ring being colored to match the color of the wheel rim or to match the color of the central disk, or colored differently from the color of the wheel rim or the color of the central disk.
Another variation on the removable vehicle wheel ring invention has the ring being made from aluminum.
Yet another variation on the removable vehicle wheel ring invention has the plurality of holes arrayed annularly around the ring being countersunk on the outer surface or being spot faced on the outer surface.
Still another variation on the removable vehicle wheel ring invention has the ring having a light reflective surface so that the ring will become much more distinguishable when a light source strikes it.
A final variation on the removable vehicle wheel ring invention has the internal threading of the plurality of holes arrayed annularly at equal spaces around the outer rim edge being provided by having steel internally threaded nut inserts installed in each hole.
This invention achieves the objective of having the same appearance as an off road bead lock vehicle wheel. The instant vehicle wheel accomplishes the objective of being fabricated without modifying an existing wheel. The instant vehicle wheel achieves the objective of being a street legal wheel capable of mass-production. The instant vehicle wheel achieves another objective of being capable of production at a fraction of the cost of an actual bead lock wheel. Yet another objective of producing a matching or contrasting color simulated outer bead lock is achieved. Still another objective of producing a simulated outer bead lock ring having a light reflective surface so that the ring will become much more distinguishable when a light source strikes it has been met. The objective to produce a vehicle wheel ring with far greater ease of interchangeability than a conventional bead lock vehicle wheel ring or a one-piece imitation bead lock wheel has been met by this invention. Another objective is to produce a vehicle wheel ring with far greater ease of interchangeability than a conventional bead lock vehicle wheel or a one-piece imitation bead lock wheel. The final objective of producing a low cost inter-changeable simulated outer bead lock ring that a vehicle owner could have in several colors or styles and could mix, match or replace at will has been accomplished.